A look ahead to the Mid-Season Invitational 2018

King-Zone Dragon-X, Team Liquid and Fnatic are beginning their preparations for the Mid-Season Invitational.

This is the first international tournament of the year, and one that offers plenty of promise. Only the Spring Split champions get to attend this exclusive event.

The four major regions are seeded directly. The remaining regions will fight for their chance to compete. The play-in stage will have 10 teams. However, only two will make it to the main event.

Rating each region’s chances

North America

Team Liquid will represent their region for the first time. This squad is known for placing fourth in almost every split, but managed to overcome 100 Thieves to claim first place in the Spring Split.

For the first time in their history, Team Liquid will compete outside the United States. However, the players are no strangers to the international stage.

Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, Eugene “Pobelter” Park and Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung made it to the World Championship in 2017. The jungler, mid laner and support shared their time in the now disbanded team Immortals.

Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong was the star top laner in Cloud9. Finally, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng went to the World Championship with Team SoloMid. This will be his first MSI, but his experience in other tournaments should serve him well.

With everything at stake, the North American team has its eyes on the prize.

Europe

Fnatic is always in the fight for the title but never comes out on top. That all changed this year as they produced a 3-0 victory over G2 Esports to claim the Spring Split. For the first time since 2015, Fnatic will return to the MSI stage.

As the MSI will be taking place between Germany and France this year, Fnatic have the bonus of being the local side.

Korea

Each and every year it is predicted that a Korean team will win the World Championship. Each and every year, those predictions are correct.

Korean teams are dominant wherever they go and the MSI is no exception.

SK Telecom T1 won the MSI title two years in a row. However, for the first time in history, a different team will be representing the region. Will we see a third consecutive Korean MSI champion? It seems likely.

King-Zone DragonX is a team composed of stars. This team is not about a single player. Every single one of them is a playmaker and a carry.

King-Zone defeated Afreeca Freecs 3-1 in a match that was a League of Legends masterclass. As a result of their dominant display, they enter the tournament as favorites.

China

Some consider Chinese teams to be better than the Koreans. On the international stage they go head-to-head, but the LCK representatives come out top most of the time.

King-Zone support GorillA said his team will pay a lot of respect to the Chinese representative. The spring champion is yet to be determined. However, it is a strong region and the winning team will undoubtedly be capable of giving any team a run for their money.

Mid-Season Invitational: Final details

The 2018 Mid-Season Invitational final will take place on 20 May at the Zenith Paris – La Villette in Paris, France.

So far, Invictus Gaming is the favorite team to take the title. They are currently on the semifinals and will go against Royal Never Give Up next.

This is not a new organisation, but this is their first time as favourites. MSI will be their chance to show their talent to the world.

EVOS Esports, KaBuM! e-Sports, Gambit Esports, PENTAGRAM, Kaos Latin Gamers, Dire Wolves and Ascension Gaming have all qualified for the finals. Four places are still up for grabs.